ZAMDELA. – The Sasolburg Regional Court has recently sentenced a suspect, George Lerato Witbooi (26) to 20 years imprisonment for a rape that occurred in 2016 in Zamdela.

On Sunday, 1 May 2016 at about 21:30 the victim, a 16 years old teenager, was on her way home when she came across two unknown African males who grabbed her handbag and pulled her into the bushes near Lehutso Primary School. The two suspects told the victim not to scream and threatened to kill her with a knife and a pair of scissors that were in their possession.

The two unknown suspects took turns raping the victim and afterwards forced her to walk with them. Near the tar road the victim managed to break free and flagged down an oncoming vehicle. The driver of the vehicle assisted the victim and helped her to report the insident to the Zamdela SAPS.

Although there were no leads in the case and the victim did not know the suspects, Detective Sergeant Sophia Kgayane did a thorough investigation which lead to linking the DNA that was gathered in this case, to a another rape case which was withdrawn in 2014. The DNA indicated without doubt that Witbooi was involved in both cases.